#liter

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves. ↗

— E.M. Forster

#literature #self-discovery #path

Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that's where it should stay. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#christopher-hitchens #humour #literature #writing #write

Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood. ↗

— Jane Yolen

#disease #literature #magic

At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book--that string of confused, alien ciphers--shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. ↗

— Alberto Manguel

#childhood #literature #reading #stories #words

She asked where he lived. Second to the right,' said Peter, 'and then straight on till morning. ↗

— J.M. Barrie

#fantasy #peter-pan #fantasy

If you show someone something you've written, you give them a sharpened stake, lie down in your coffin, and say, ‘When you’re ready’. ↗

— David Mitchell

#writing #criticism

While we are looking for the antidote or the medicine to cure us, that is, the 'new', which can only be found by plunging deep into the Unknown, we have to go on exploring sex, books, and travel, although we know that they lead us to the abyss, which, as it happens, is the only place where the antidote can be found. ↗

— Roberto Bolaño

#bolano #books #literature-and-illness #sex #travel

As long as you have any floor space at all, you have room for books! Just make two stacks of books the same height, place them three or four feet apart, lay a board across them, and repeat. Viola! Bookshelves! ↗

— Jan Karon

#books #literacy #reading #space

I don't see how the study of language and literature can be separated from the question of free speech, which we all know is fundamental to our society. [p.92] ↗

— Northrop Frye

#literary-criticism #education

Sir, I shall not defeat you - I shall transcend you. ↗

— Benjamin Disraeli

#history #literature #politics #defeat